NASA's Voyager 1 has reportedly left our solar system, according to a group of scientists from the University of Maryland (UMD) -- but NASA disagrees.

The UMD team -- led by Marc Swisdak, UMD research scientist; James F. Drake, a physicist at the University of Maryland, and Merav Opher, of Boston University -- have created a model that they claim proves the Voyager 1 has finally left our solar system and entered interstellar space.

In fact, the team believes Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space July 27, 2012. But NASA researchers still don't believe Voyager 1 has done so.

How is there such a huge disconnect between both beliefs? On NASA's side of the situation, Voyager 1 has recorded erratic shifts in solar particle and galactic particle counts -- and at one point, solar particle counts disappeared while galactic particles remained, which would indicate an exit of our solar system -- but the lack of directional change in the magnetic field makes NASA scientists skeptical of whether Voyager 1 has truly entered interstellar space.

The heliosphere -- which is a bubble of charged particles surrounding our solar system and is dominated by the sun -- has a heliopause transition zone that leads to interstellar space. This is a zone with unknown properties, but many believe that the loss of solar particles and the remainder of galactic particles is a sign that the craft has left the heliopause transition zone. A different direction in the local magnetic field is also a key sign.

So how are there no solar particles, but the magnetic field's direction hasn't changed? Scientists believe Voyager 1 has entered a heliosheath depletion region, where it remains in a section of the heliosphere.

However, the UMD team's model of the outer edge of the solar system may have a new solution that points to Voyager 1's exit of the heliosphere entirely.

According to the UMD researchers, magnetic reconnection -- which is the breaking and reconfiguring of oppositely-directed magnetic field lines -- is the explanation. The team said that the heliopause isn't the split between inside and outside of the solar system. Rather, it's a "porous" structure that creates a set of magnetic spots, which are self-contained and appear in a magnetic field due to a "fundamental instability." Galactic plasma and cosmic rays are allowed to mix with solar particles through the use of reconnected field lines.

Reconnection sites issue slopes in the magnetic field, where solar particles are known to decrease and galactic particles increase. However, the magnetic field direction doesn't change, and this is how UMD researchers explain what NASA is finding.

UMD isn't alone in its way of thinking. In March of this year, a new study conducted by researchers at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces suggested that Voyager 1 exited the heliosphere on the edge of the solar system in 2012 as well. These findings were based on the fact that levels of anomalous cosmic rays (which are in the heliosphere) dropped to 1 percent from previous levels while levels of galactic cosmic rays (which are outside the solar system) increased to twice their previous levels during late August 2012. This was the highest these levels have ever been.

The Voyager 1 is a NASA space probe that was launched in 1977 to study the outer solar system.

quote: and at one point, solar particle counts disappeared while galactic particles remained, which would indicate an exit of our solar system -- but the lack of directional change in the magnetic field makes NASA scientists skeptical of whether Voyager 1 has truly entered interstellar space.

One of the interesting things about interstellar space is will the permeability and permittivity of there be different from what we measure inside the heliosphere. If it is the same, then one would expect the speed of light to be the same also, but if it is different, then one would expect the speed of light to change too.In regards to the presence and absence of solar particles, my thinking is this is the result of either Jupiter or Saturn passing between Voyager 1 and the sun some time ago, e.g. 6 months ago, and creating a "wash" or null region of sun particles that slowly spirals outwards from that planet's orbit towards the edge of the heliosphere.As such, I think that NASA is right to be cautious to think Voyager 1 is still within the heliosphere ... I think we will have to wait a bit longer ... like another few years.

"You can bet that Sony built a long-term business plan about being successful in Japan and that business plan is crumbling." -- Peter Moore, 24 hours before his Microsoft resignation